“The creation of Upper Allegheny Health System in 2009 enhanced the ability of Bradford Regional Medical Center and Olean General Hospital to respond to the challenges of today’s healthcare environment through increased scale and support.”

That’s from the Upper Allegany Health System website, on Jan. 19. However, the truth is that Olean General Hospital is not capable of absorbing this influx of patients from its affiliate.

On Jan. 18, while working a shift at Port Area Ambulance Service at 8 p.m., we received word from dispatch that Olean General Hospital was not accepting additional patients. If this is the case, why — especially in the middle of a global pandemic — is UAHS announcing that BRMC being reduced to a shell of its current capabilities?

BRMC is strategically located to serve more than 15,000 people in the surrounding communities. It allows for distribution of inpatient populations among Kane, Coudersport, Bradford, Salamanca and Olean. From an EMS standpoint, the fact that UAHS has stated that the emergency department will stay open is still only a partial relief. EDs nationwide are experiencing throughput issues, where ED patients have to wait long times for inpatient beds.

Cutting the number of inpatient beds will serve to exacerbate this problem, leads to increased ED staff frustration and increases the chances of patient mishaps. Increased ED patient loads lead to increased time to definitive care for patients coming in via EMS.

With knowledge of all these issues, this decision by UAHS smacks of a ploy by UAHS to threaten the reduction of services at BRMC in order to pressure governmental bodies to provide an influx of money to UAHS that would be better obtained via improving the quality of care provided at their hospitals. By improving the quality of their services to meet standard metrics, they can increase insurance reimbursements under the Affordable Care Act and increase the profitability of BRMC.

Christopher Benson

BSN Port Allegany